Diablo 101

Diablo is found in a closed square on the lower left quarter of level 16. In the box surrounding Diablo are at least 8 mages and 10 knights, though others (randomly spawned) are usually found in there as well. To access Diablo's box you must throw both skull levers in the + shaped box in the top left corner of level 16; this can be done by entering the box (by throwing other skull levers on the level) or simply using telekinesis over the wall.

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More so than any other monster, Diablo should be fought solo; he's hard enough without knights joining in, or Advocates launching fireballs. The easiest way to lure out Diablo is with a trick; use Holy Bolt. Diablo is a Demon, but he's also vulnerable to Holy Bolt; the only Demon in the game who is. This isn't a tactic to kill him; it's just a trick to "wake up" Diablo without disturbing any of the knights or mages. If your aim is true (watch the map, aim right down the center of the room, and shoot in a straight line), Diablo will grunt in pain and come charging out to fight.

A more aggressive way to bring him out is to simply run up and let him see you. This isn't especially advised through, since the knights will all pour forth as well. It's possible to visually nibble your way in, moving just close enough for the knights (and mages) on one side to see you, then backing off around the corner to kill them. It can also be fun to cast fire spells into the room; guardian or fire wall are amusing, but Flame Wave is the best, since it will sweep through the entire square and hit everything not behind one of the corner walls. Note that Advocates are fire immune on Hell, and will not react to flame attacks.

Diablo has by far the highest hit points, AC, and damage in the game (and they're raised still further on Hellfire), so prepare for a long fight. (His full stats are listed on his monster page.) As with any tough fight, it's wise to stock up on potions in advance, and to make sure your equipment is fully-repaired. Drop extra potions on the ground if you think you'll need them, since it's faster to pick them up than try to click and drag them from your inventory to your belt mid-fight. The key to beating Diablo is the same as with most tough melee bosses; make sure you've got plenty of to/hit and a fast swing. Hitting him with your swings is more important than doing a bit more damage, so if you must choose damage vs. to/hit, take the to/hit. Being able to block his attacks (both his melee and his Apocalypse spell can be blocked) helps, as does doing sufficient damage to rock him.

Apocalypse is auto-targeting, but it takes a fraction of a second to appear after it's cast. This makes it possible to dodge the spell, if you change direction constantly. Walk in a zig zag while leading Diablo to the spot you wish to fight him in; walking in a straight line will let his every Apocalypse hit.

Diablo uses the same AI as the Magma Demons. His spell is Apocalypse, not throwing a molten rock, but he moves around the same way, dancing side to side and circling the target. This AI is very evident if you use a weapon with knock back, since every time you push Diablo more than a step away he'll run back and start circling again, while periodically pausing to cast Apocalypse.

Positioning is important against Diablo, since he has a knock back hit. If you want to go toe to toe, put yourself against a wall or in a corner, and make sure he's hitting you back against the wall. Your character will not be knocked back and can keep whacking away non-stop. You can use his knockback to your advantage if you're lower on AC, hit points, or lack good blocking. In that case make sure there is not a wall behind you. This way Diablo will never hit you twice in a row, since his hits will knock you backwards. Keep swinging, you'll be able to get in a free hit or two every time you are pushed back, when he has to move forward to get back into melee range.

An oddity of this style of fight is that your character will be steadily pushed back out of their light radius. There's a bug in Diablo in which a character's or monsters's light radius only readjusts if the character actually moves. If you stand still and get knocked back by attacks, your light radius will remain where you last moved, until you move again when it will jump back to display properly. This can be observed when using a bow with knock back against a boss, or (more painfully) when Diablo beats your character halfway across a level.

Since the game ends when you kill Diablo, it's wise to prepare in advance. Be sure you've picked up everything you left in town and done your final shopping and repairs. If you want to do a full clear of 16, you'll need to lure Diablo away and then return to clear out his box. In multiplayer, this is easily done by exploiting the fact that characters do not drop their equipment when they die on level 16. Simply cast a town portal somewhere out of sight near Diablo's box, wake Diablo up, and lead him to the other side of the level. Let him kill you there, restart in town, and take your portal back down. If your character has teleport ditching Diablo is even easier; just lead him around to the right side of the level and teleport over a wall. Be sure you're far enough from the opening in the center of the level that he can't pathfind his way around after you.

Killing Diablo

Not fireproof.

This should be a major and very important section, but sadly enough, it's not. Why? Because Diablo isn't anywhere near as difficult as he should be. This is a quick reference table; his full stats can be seen here.

Difficulty	Hit Points	Resistances	Immunities
Normal	1666	fire/lightning	magic
Nightmare	5098	fire/lightning	magic
Hell	6864	fire/lightning	magic

Diablo is a bit harder with v1.07, as the AC and hp bugs are fixed, but he's still not too tough. A mage in battle setup can pretty easily defeat Diablo just by standing and swinging with a shield, (a shield is actually faster for a mage to swing with than a non-haste/speed weapon).

The apocalypse D attacks with is nasty only if you are moving or w/o a shield, as you can almost always block it if you remain stationary. Ways to speed up his death are adding spells that will keep on giving while you are taking the brunt of his affections. Golem, firewalls under Diablo's feet, or many guardians all work nicely. You can also cast a bunch of firewalls and/or guardians in an area and then teleport over the wall or even die. Your guardians or firewalls will live on and keep hurting him, and he's too stupid to run.

But these are the finesse techniques. I used to just take him face to face and treat him like a big blood knight, IE fireball, fireball, fireball, repeat as needed. If you lack the AC to let him get close and keep casting spells, you can leapfrog him with teleports and always have him advancing on you. It might be more difficult to hit him then however, as he has a bit of the happy feet and will prance around some in the fashion of a Goat man or a Balrog. (Diablo has the same AI as Magma Demons.) He also has a knockback attack, so it's important that you choose your place of battle carefully, with your back to a wall and your firewall right in front of you, so he doesn't come in and knock you back and then advance a step, moving right out of the firewall. From the chart you can see that Diablo is vulnerable to lightning as well as fire, but fireballs do so much more damage that they are the way to go, even if you get a very nice background for the chain. I've killed Diablo on normal and nightmare by luring him out of his box with holy bolt, moving over to the side so I had a nice corner shot at his box, and then chaining him with fifteen or more streams going out aimed at the blood knights and advocates in his box and hitting him on the way. Holy bolt can also be very useful for killing him on normal, as you should be able to stun lock him with it.

One other tip, if you keep a space clear in your inventory, it's not that hard to grab whatever Diablo drops. Get him almost dead, and have him in a fire field or with sufficient guardians, or else have him attacking you while your golem hits him from behind. Then cast telekinesis, so you get the TK cursor up, but don't click it on anything yet. Wait for Diablo to die while you have the TK cursor ready, and you'll have about 5 seconds to grab what he drops (if anything) while he screams and bleeds and the screen fades to black. Diablo has no special ability to drop anything better than any of the other monsters though, so don't get your hopes up too high. (He is a higher monster level than anything else in Hellfire though, so possibly there he could drop something you'd normally have to buy from Wirt.) I did this many many times in Diablo, netting maybe 20 items, and of them about 3 or 4 were magical. My best ever was a magical long battle bow, that ID'ed as platinum of giants, as I recall. Nothing worth the effort, in other words.

One little addendum here. (Thanks and apologies to Thecla from the bnet strat forum.) Make sure to beware a bug in the game. You can not drink from your belt with the number keys (or a right click) while you have the TK cursor up. So if you are getting hit badly enough that you need a mana refill, you should click on anything to get the TK cursor to go away, drink a potion, and then quickly recast TK.

There is another technique to go through a town portal back up to town after Diablo dies but before the game ends, and with it you could then come back down and get anything he dropped, but I honestly don't remember quite how to do it, and it didn't work as well as the TK method anyway.

Of course the simplest way is to play with some other player(s) and have one of them on any level besides 16 when you kill Diablo. Everyone on lvl 16 automatically exits from the game and is taken to the ending movie, but if you are not on lvl 16, (In town = not on lvl 16, btw) you can keep playing without interruption. And then go down to 16 to see what if anything Diablo dropped. The others can rejoin the game after their automatic exit, if they are so inclined.

One last note on Hellfire Diablo. He's not much tougher, but he's smarter, sort of. Like all Hellfire monsters, he'll stay out of a fire or lightning wall if he's not immune to it. You can use this to your advantage, by casting a few to block his advance towards yourself. He'll get up to the edge of the wall and scoot back and forth and apoc like mad. Put another wall behind him, so he can't go back, and then put one (or ten) more right on top of him. He'll stop moving, since any direction brings him more damage, and won't even apoc you anymore. This is a very useful trick for a rogue, as you can do this and then arrow him to death w/o a thought, but obviously with a mage you can go to work with fireballs and finish him off very quickly, or just keep refreshing the fire/lightning walls and watch him slowly wither.

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